Hasan Israilov ( ce, Исраил КIант Хьасан / ; russian: Хасан Исраилов ''Khasan Israilov''; 1910 – December 29, 1944) was a Chechen nationalist, guerrilla fighter, journalist, and poet who led Chechen and Ingush resistance and a rebellion against the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

from 1940 until his death in 1944. Israilov is regarded as one of the most influential Chechen resistance leaders during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, and he is considered by many Chechens to be a national hero. He was infamous to the Soviets, and to many Russians, for his 1940-1944 uprising, which many Russians connected to an abortive German plot to undermine Soviet control over the

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, ( ady, Темыр Къафкъас, Temır Qafqas; kbd, Ишхъэрэ Къаукъаз, İṩxhərə Qauqaz; ce, Къилбаседа Кавказ, Q̇ilbaseda Kavkaz; , os, Цӕгат Кавказ, Cægat Kavkaz, inh, ...

. His name is also sometimes transliterated to Latin alphabet as Hassan Izrailov.

Early life

Israilov was born in 1910 in the village of Galanchozh, Chechnya, as the youngest of six brothers. He was from the

Terloy The Terloy (also Terlo, Teroy) (Chechen: ТIерлой, ТIерой) is a Chechen teip. The exact population of the teip is not known, however it is estimated to be around 30,000 people. Terloy speak in the Itum-Kali dialect of the Chechen lan ...

clan. He finished secondary school in

Rostov Rostov ( rus, Росто́в, p=rɐˈstof) is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, northeast of Moscow. Population: While ...

in 1929, generally excelling in most subjects.Dunlop, John B. ''Chechnya Confronts Russia''. Page 57 He joined Komsomol, the youth wing of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1919. Graduating from a communist secondary school in Rostov-on-Don in 1929, Israilov entered the ranks of the Communist Party, and in 1933 he was sent to Moscow's

Communist University of the Toilers of the East The Communist University of the Toilers of the East (KUTV) (russian: link=no, Коммунистический университет трудящихся Востока; also known as the Far East University) was a revolutionary training scho ...

. As a student Israilov wrote plays and poetry, and he became a correspondent for the Moscow newspaper ''Krestianskaia Gazeta (Farmer's Newspaper)''. A couple of his articles attacked the Soviet policy in the Checheno-Ingushetia, which he described as "plundering Chechnya by the Party leadership". Although he instantly became popular with his peers, the Soviet leadership arrested him swiftly at the age of 19, on charges of "counterrevolutionary slander", and was sentenced to ten years in prison after he had written an editorial accusing certain Party officials of "looting and corruption", but after two years Israilov was released, rehabilitated, and allowed to return to his university after several of the Party members Israilov had accused were charged with corruption. Returning to Moscow, Israilov met with other Chechen and Ingush students, including

Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov Abdurakhman Genazovich (Ganazovich) Avtorkhanov ( ce, Абдурахма́н Гена́зович (Гана́зович) Авторха́нов, 23 October 1908 – 24 April 1997) was a Chechen historian who worked primarily in the fields of ...

and his elder brother Hussein, and they came to the conviction that a continuation of Soviet policy toward Chechen and Ingush Autonomous Oblasts would inevitably lead to popular uprisings. In 1935, Israilov once again fell into legal troubles when his signature was found on a student petition critical of Soviet policy in the

, and he was sentenced to five years'

forced labor Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

. Israilov was released early in 1939 and he returned to Chechnya to work as a barrister in Shatoy.

Rebel leader

In 1940, after hearing of Finland's resistance against Soviet aggression, Israilov and his brother Hussein organized and led the

1940–1944 insurgency in Chechnya The 1940–1944 insurgency in Chechnya was an autonomous revolt against the Soviet Union, Soviet authorities in the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Beginning in early 1940 under Hasan Israilov, it peaked in 1942 during the ...

, during which he presided over the Provisional Popular Revolutionary Government of Checheno-Ingushetia. In February 1944, Israilov had managed to elude the Soviet deportation of all Chechens and Ingushes, although his entire family had been either deported or executed outright, and he was rendered extremely vulnerable to capture. Although forced confessions from colleagues led the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

to many of Israilov's weapons and equipment, he eluded arrest for the next ten months hiding from cave to cave as a fugitive, burdened by the weight of the deportation of his people. In a top secret communication among Soviet officers, it was reported that Israilov had been killed, his corpse photographed and identified on December 29, 1944. Soviet security forces would continue to hunt the remnants of the Chechen guerrilla opposition in the North Caucasus until 1953.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Israilov, Hasan 1910 births 1944 deaths Chechen guerrillas killed in action Chechen journalists Chechen nationalists Chechen partisans in World War II Chechen poets 20th-century poets Chechen anti-communists Communist University of the Toilers of the East alumni North Caucasian independence activists Soviet journalists